Deteriorating Affections
by Shinan7
Summary: Iruka found love with Kakashi, but what happens when the love just... stops? Avoidance, and a jump back into what he used to do best. Yaoi/Shonen Ai/Guy love. Major Character death. Kakashi/Iruka at first-ish. Non-canon. AU-ish
1. Chapter 1

Disclaimer: Naruto does not belong to me.

Note: This is a non-canon story. It is a tragedy, so there will be a death at the end.

This is a yaoi, so if you don't like, then don't read.

Pairings: Kakashi/Iruka

The smile on Iruka's face wouldn't leave for anything in the world. Happy. He was incredibly happy. No, it wasn't like he wasn't ever happy. Iruka did have Naruto, after all. That kid could make anyone's life bright. No... It was something else. Love. A different love than fatherly or brotherly. It had it's own flavor, it's own special place. It was a different level, a more physical connection.

It was the kind of love that Iruka didn't think he would ever find. After all, not a lot of shinobi lived long enough to find a connection like that.

Iruka had been of a mind that he would be one of the few to never find that special someone. During Academy, during his gennin years, hell... Even his chuunin years had been somewhat desolat. Never had he felt a tug. Not for his fellow kunoichi at least.

Then... Then Kakashi had wandered into his life...

Iruka hadn't done anything. Never would he have even made a move if Kakashi hadn't made it first.

If it were possible, the smile on Iruka's face grew. Oh, he'd been so furious at the jounin for nominating Naruto, Sasuke, and Sakura for the chuunin exams. He'd completely forgotten about his infatuation while yelling at the man during the meeting. That really hadn't been his best moment but Iruka had been worried. They were his kids after all.

Then he'd tested them and he'd had to agree that Kakashi had been right and they really were ready.

After that, Iruka had gone off to apologise to Kakashi. It had been more than a bit mortifying and Iruka hadn't been able to keep his face from turning a deep shade of red. Kakashi had chuckled, and called him a mother hen. Then he'd done something that had made Iruka's world freeze. Kakashi had leaned down and kissed him. Iruka had felt the soft skin of lips against his own. The jounin had tugged down his mask.

That had been the start of their relationship. It hadn't really been open since they never were together all that often in public. Iruka had never pushed for anything either. If Kakashi wanted to keep things under wraps, then Iruka didn't mind. He was content with what they had. He didn't need to have public displays to let him know that Kakashi cared for him. The jounin had even asked Iruka to move in. And Iruka had. Most of their friends thought that Kakashi had offered him a room so he could save up for a proper house instead of living in an apartment, and Iruka never corrected them.

Eventually, people would find out. They were shinobi after all. It was just a matter of time. By then, hopefully Kakashi would be ready for it. Though, the man loved dodging questions. It was part of his charm.

Iruka chuckled quietly as he stirred the contents in the pot. It was nearly dinner time, and he was starving. He wasn't expecting Kakashi to get home just yet since he was currently on a mission and wasn't supposed to be back until the morning, but Iruka liked making extra just in case. Even if Kakashi didn't arrive, Iruka could always take it for lunch, and often did.

"Kakashi!" Iruka called happily as he spotted the man in the living room. He hadn't even felt his beloved's chakra signature. "I'm glad you're home! I made dinn-" Iruka tried to lean in for a kiss but Kakashi side stepped him.

"I'm alright, Iruka. I don't want any." Kakashi brushed passed the slightly bewildered chuunin without another glance.

Iruka's smile fell.

A/N: This will be about three to five chapters long, including this one. The following chapters will be a tad bit longer though.

Thank you for reading!


	2. Chapter 2

It hurt.

The pain was surprisingly worse than a flesh wound could ever be. There was nothing, absolutely nothing, that Iruka could do to stop it... to make it better... To forget.

The thing was... he had no idea why...why Kakashi was acting the like that... Like they were no more... Was... Was that really what the man wanted? Did he really want Iruka out of his life? Maybe it really was that, Iruka should stop stalling already and just leave...

Iruka couldn't help but sigh sadly. It hurt... It hurt so much when the man you loved just... stopped loving you back. The least Kakashi could do was tell him that he wanted to break up and not dangle him on the string of maybe's.

Then again, it was also Iruka's fault. He was such a pushover and such an idiot to let Kakashi get away with it. To let it go and not confront him about it.

With another soft sigh, Iruka turned back to the paperwork in front of him. Now was not the time to wallow in self pity, even if that the only thing he felt like doing.

"Good morning, Iruka."

Speak of the devil, and he shall appear. Iruka's hand tightened slightly on his pen before looking up with a forced smile. "Kakashi, back from your mission? How did it go?"

"Maa, it was fine." Kakashi eye smiled and placed the report on Iruka's desk before turning away again without a goodbye. Even though the action didn't surprise the chuunin, it still hurt. Kakashi talked to him in public, even if it was less than usual... But... Even though they lived together, Iruka hardly ever saw the jounin anymore. And if he did, the man was leaving or Iruka was. Even when Iruka greeted him, Kakashi never replied. Half of the time, Iruka convinced himself that Kakashi hadn't heard him.

Denial at its finest.

Iruka quickly read through the report, and corrected the mistakes on it before putting it into the accepted pile. He didn't feel like tracking down Kakashi to get him to do it himself in all honesty. Especially when it was so close to the end of his shift. After a quick glance at the clock, Iruka packed up his things and waved a goodbye to his fellow chuunin.

With a great force of will, Iruka pushed his personal problems to the back of his mind and focused on his obligations and duties.

He needed to get home and grab his pack. The class that he was teaching was going on their first ever survival test. Usually, Iruka wasn't so forgetful as to not grab everything he needed before leaving the house, but with the extra mission desk assignments that he'd taken on ever since he noticed the change in Kakashi, he had become... distracted, and the pack had been left just inside the living room. Normally, Iruka avoided the night mission desk job, but it had become a good outlet for his anxiety and restlessness.

At least most of the time it was.

Quickly hopping up to the rooftops, Iruka made his way back to Kakashi's place.

Did Kakashi regret...?

Iruka winced but pushed that thought away as he spotted the Hatake compound. Since Kakashi had just made it back from a mission, he was probably asleep in his room.

Chakra suppressed and as quietly as possible, Iruka opened the door and silently made his way to where he was sure he'd left his pack.

When he spotted it, Iruka hefted it up and spun on his heel to head to the Academy. Suddenly, he heard voices coming from the kitchen. Before, Iruka would have walked in to greet the guest and Kakashi. For a second, Iruka hesitated, feeling a bit nostalgic.

"It's about time you noticed me!" A voice giggled. "I had to throw myself at you!"

"Maa, I've always noticed. You are pretty hard to ignore."

"Aww, you flaterer!"

Iruka felt a sharp pain in his chest and he stifled back a gasp with his hand. He quickly backed away. Once he got to the door, Iruka turned and fled. He wasn't even sure if he'd closed the door behind him. All he wanted was to get away.

So that was why Kakashi had distanced himself.

Iruka's vision became blurry. He reached up with his shaking hand. When he pulled it away, his fingers were wet from the tears.

OoOoOoOoOoOoOo

"Good morning. Alright, everyone settle down. Now, before we leave, I want you to tell me everything you packed." Iruka sighed as the group children continued to ignore him. Instead of using his special jutsu, Iruka walked to the closets student.

"Kona-kun, what did you pack?"

"Right, Iruka-sensei! Sleeping bag, food, water, extra set of clothing, food pills, kunai, lighter-" The young boy kept talking and Iruka nodded as he checked the things off on his list.

"Good job. Kyo-kun?" Iruka turned to the boy hiding behind the most noisy kid in the room and proceeded like that until he'd checked with everyone.

If something was missing or someone forgot to pack something, it wouldn't matter. The night was going to be a warm one and what better way to teach future shinobi then by trial and error? With that, Iruka headed back to his desk to finished the paperwork. When he was done, he looked to one of the two other chuunin that would be going on the trip. "Can you take the papers to the office and make sure that the status of the village hasn't changed?"

Since it was their very first trial for the group, they wouldn't be going outside the village walls. Instead, they would be camping in an isolated part of the Nara forest. They would have two more at the Nara forest before going out the walls for their first actual test.

Iruka waited for the chuunin to return, while keeping an eye on the kids to make sure that they didn't get too roudy.

"We're a go." Kotetsu, the chuunin the Iruka had asked to go had returned.

"Alright, everyone line up!" Iruka said, trying to get his voice to stop sounding so... dead. It seemed to work for the kids but Iruka noticed the look that his fellow chuunin gave him. They knew him too well to know when he was faking something.

To bad for them, Iruka wasn't going to say a word. He'd brought this on himself and he was going to deal with it on his own.

Time seemed to go quickly, because it felt like only moments later, they had made it to the Nara compound.

"I'll go tell Shikamaru." Izumo -the other chuunin- said, giving Kotetsu a look as he walked away.

"Iruka-sensei!" A shrill voice called from the surrounding mass of children. "Next time we'll be able to go outside that walls, right?!"

"Yes, Akira-kun." Iruka tried to smile normally and he managed it since the boy nodded in excitement and went to his group of friends.

Just then, Iruka felt something tug on his vest and when he glanced down, Iruka saw one of the more timid girls clutching the fabric in her hand tightly. "Ano, Iruka-sensei... will we s-see any deer?"

Iruka smiled. "You might, but the Nara deer usually avoid anyone that they don't recognize."

The girl nodded a bit sadly, before turning away.

A moment later, Iruka spotted Izumo who motion him to go ahead. "Remember to stay in your groups, alright everyone?"

"Hai, sensei!"

OoOoOoOoOoOo

It was finally time for bed, and Iruka couldn't have been happier that all the rambunctious kids were ready to drop. It wasn't that he hated teaching, it was just recently... Recently Iruka had started getting restless. Maybe he would take a break from teaching and go out on missions again? He was sent out every once in awhile but maybe it was time to take on more than just teaching.

That thought kept crossing his mind throughout the night as he stayed up. Even if they weren't out of Konoha, they still needed someone to stay up for the night. Iruka knew he wasn't going to get any sleep so he had taken it upon himself to volunteer.

It was around five in the morning when an alarm sounded in Iruka's mind as he felt an unknown chakra signature. The other two chunnin snapped away as soon as Iruka touched them, eyes scanning the area around them. Iruka motioned for them to stay with the sleeping children and jumped to the trees, speeding to intercept the intruder. Before Iruka got close enough, it turned and headed away again. Instead of turning back, Iruka pursued.

But he wasn't fast enough to catch.

An hour later, Iruka returned to the campsite. He'd stopped chasing the chakra signature when the ANBU had appeared, but he hadn't felt right to just go back to the campsite. Instead the chuunin went around the forest to make sure that no one else was trespassing. Nothing else had appeared.

Hopefully the ANBU had caught up with whoever that had been and figured out why they had been in the forest in the first place.

Iruka jumped down to the forest floor, nodding to his fellow chuunin and friends. They looked to him, eyebrows raised. Iruka shook his head and all three began waking up the still sleeping kids. Iruka let Kotetsu give the orders as he, himself helped kids roll up sleeping bags the proper way. A few hours later, the group left the forest, waving goodbye to Shikamaru as they were passing by his house.

The Nara got up and walked over to Iruka who had stopped walking, knowing that Shikamaru wanted a report.

"Have you heard anything?"

Iruka shook his head. "As soon as ANBU showed up, I dropped back to do a perimeter check of the forest."

"I guess I have to go to the Hokage then. Troublesome." Shikamaru reached into his pocket. "Do you mind taking my shift at the Mission Room?"

Even though the younger man said it in a bored tone, Iruka could tell that the breach was bothering him. The shadow user didn't look like he'd gotten much sleep. Iruka wasn't surprised since he'd sensed his familiar chakra while going through the his own perimeter check. "Sure, I can do that."

The Nara nodded a thanks before he disappeared. Iruka turned back to head towards the Academy where the majority of the parents would be waiting for their children.

In no time, they got to the Academy. A minute afterward, every child was with a parent and walking away. Iruka could hear the excited chatter as the kids recounted their experiences and what they did right.

Iruka couldn't stop a soft smile from crossing his face.

"Iruka! Want to go get breakfast with us?" Izumo called as he and Kotetsu made their way over to him.

Iruka hoisted his pack on his shoulders. "No, sorry. I promised Shikamaru I would take over his his shift today."

"Whaaat?! Are you serious?! Aren't you tired?" Kotetsu shook his head, looking a little worried. "You were on shift the night before and last night you didn't get a wink of sleep!"

Iruka smiled, and hoped he didn't look that tired. He hated when his friends worried about him. There was no need to, at least he didn't think so. "I'm fine, don't worry. It's just desk work, I can do that in my sleep."

Izumo frowned but they both nodded to Iruka. "Just make sure to eat something! Ration bars might give you energy but they taste like shit."

A chuckled left Iruka's lips. "Fine, I'll see you guys later!"

The other two nodded and headed off down the road. Iruka turned the other way and made his way to the Hokage Tower. It was going to be a long day, he could already tell.

OoOoOoOoOoOo

The scroll went into the accepted basket, and Iruka rubbed the side of his head for a second. The headache was getting stronger and there was no way that it would go away any time in the near future. Ever since he'd sat down at the desk, there had been an influx of shinobi. Most were there to pick up a few missions but there was also more than a few people applying for escorts. Never before had Iruka been this busy. But then again, maybe it was because of lack of sleep. He was already at a little more than forty five hours without sleep. It wasn't his limit but it was darn close.

"Next!" Iruka looked up and held out a hand for the scroll in Raido's hand.

The man handed it to him and waited patiently as Iruka read through it. "I've been seeing you at the Mission desk a lot more then normal, Iruka. How's it going?"

"Yeah, I've been covering for a few people. It's been a bit hectic but nothing major so far." Iruka glanced up and gave him a forced smile. He didn't really know him that well. Raido was more of Kakashi's friend then he was Iruka's.

"How's Kakashi? I haven't seen him around that much."

Iruka's hand tightened slightly before forcing himself to relax. "He'd been good. Kakashi just got back from a mission the other day. He's been taking a lot of them." Iruka forced a smile. He scanned the rest of the report and placed it in the accepted pile. "I'm sure you'll spot him before he goes out for another one."

Raido nodded and with a wave, left Iruka who motioned for the next shinobi to step up. This one Iruka only knew by sight. He quickly scanned through the report and didn't find any mistakes so he nodded to the man with a smile and waved the next one to come forward.

OoOoOoOoOoOo

"Iruka, you should take your break." Miko stated with a frown. "You've been here all day."

Iruka held back a sigh, and instead smiled up at his fellow chuunin. "I was just about to go, I just didn't want to leave these reports unfinished."

The woman narrowed her eyes before nodding. "Alright, just don't stay too long or else you'll be stuck here again for another hour."

Iruka smiled politely and turned down to the report.

It was a request for an escort mission to the one of the villages just inside the farthest border of the Land of Fire. The man was to leave the next morning and just needed one escort to keep bandits away since he was carrying precious stones on his person. He hadn't wanted to draw attention by taking a wagon but he didn't want to go unprotected either.

After pondering that, Iruka rolled up the scroll and headed up Lady Tsunade's office.

The secretary let him in and Iruka bowed respectively and shut the door. "Lady Tsunade."

"Iruka, what can I do for you?" The blond woman leaned her chin on her hands and ignored the paperwork that lay scattered around her desk.

"I was hoping to take a bit of a break from the Academy and Mission Room..." Iruka hesitated but continued after a few second. "I have an escort mission that I would like to take."

The Hokage motioned for him to hand her the scroll, and Iruka complied. He shifted slightly from foot to foot as she read through it. "You haven't gone out in a while, correct?"

"That's correct, Lady Tsunade. The last one was an infiltration mission a year ago. I-I'm actually thinking of getting more missions outside the Village..." Iruka stuttered slightly. "And this is the perfect one to start."

After a few seconds of silence, the blond nodded. "Alright, I'll get someone to cover the Academy and desk during your absence. If you do feel like taking more missions after this, feel free to come tell me."

"Thank you, Lady Tsunade." Iruka took the scroll, bowed, and made his way out of the office.

The man whom had put in for the escort was still in the waiting room, and Iruka quickly made his way over to him. "Kento Yamada?" At the man's nod, Iruka bowed his head slightly. "My name is Iruka, I'll be your escort. What time would you like to meet?"

The man relaxed immediately as he studied Iruka. "Six in the morning. I would like as much time to travel in the sun as possible."

Iruka nodded his head. "I'll meet you by the gate, Yamada-san. Have a good night."

The man nodded back and left the room. Iruka went to his desk, and packed his bag up quickly before finally making his way out of the office. He was done for the day.

It was early enough that the sun was still out but Iruka could tell that it would set soon. Just as he was walking down the familiar path, Iruka stopped.

Did he really want to go back to Kakashi's...?"

No. No he didn't.

Iruka spun on his heel and made his way to the clothing store. He stalked up on a few pants and shirts before making his way to one of the hotels. He could stay there and rest as much as he could before leaving in the morning.

Once in the room, Iruka dumped the clothing in a heap on the bed. He quickly sorted them, making sure to fold them so they could all fit in his pack. After that was done, Iruka took everything out of his pack and went through it. He left his kunai and shuriken on the table for the moment. First he looked at all of his old clothing and threw out anything that had rips or didn't fit. He'd gotten slimmer during the past few months and didn't need anything that was overly baggy on him.

When he finished going through everything, he only had a few of his old shirts. He threw away all the others. It was a shock at how little he actually had that was passable. Now that he thought on it, Iruka hadn't really gone shopping in a long while. The brunette grimaced, he really had let himself go...

He placed all the clothes into the pack and there was plenty of room left over for storage scrolls.

Storage scrolls... Food...

"Damn!" Iruka cursed. He had completely forgotten about food. A quick glance out the window showed the sky was red. He still had a little time until most of the shops would close. With a head shake at his forgetfulness, Iruka put on his sandals and left the room.

The chuunin made his way to the store, a few storage scrolls in his pouch. He didn't feel like carrying everything. His body was already sore, he didn't need any more work outs for that night.

Iruka picked up a basket and quickly set to work. He needed more ration bars, even though they tasted like crap. And a new canteen wouldn't hurt... Just to be on the safe side, he'd get an extra one just in case.

He had to stop by the Hospital to get a few soldier pills as well. He'd used the last few already. Those could wait though since it was open all day...

After a few more minutes of stuffing things into the basket, Iruka went to the register and paid. He then took out one of the scrolls and sealed everything into it.

"Thank you, have a nice night." The store owner smiled and Iruka nodded. He headed out and felt his stomach rumble as his nose got a wiff of something. It was loud, extremely so and he walked a bit faster.

Even though he hadn't eaten in all day, Iruka first stopped at the hospital. He was in and out within ten minutes. Next stop was something to eat for the night.

Iruka debated with himself but finally decided against ramen. That wouldn't be good for him after not eating and then going on a mission in the morning. Instead, Iruka headed for one of the Akimichi restaurants.

"Dine in?" The hostess asked politely as soon as Iruka made his way in.

As the brunette was about to reply, someone yelled out his name. Iruka turned his head and looked to the side and spotted a group of very familiar shinobi. He saw Genma first, then Raido. Next to him was Aoba and across from him sat Asuma. His stomach twisted painfully when he caught a glimpse of spiky, silver hair to Asuma's right side. He turned back to the hostess. "Take out. I'd like an order of chicken Kamameshi and an order of Gyoza."

"Iruka! Come over here!" The chuunin winced as Genma yelled out even louder.

"I'll be over there, but can you please make it quick?" Iruka asked and took out his wallet to get out the money. "You can keep the change." The woman nodded and headed to the back. Hopefully, Iruka would be out in a few minutes. He took a breath and turned to walk over to the table that he couldn't pretend to ignore anymore. Iruka forced a smile as he stopped a few feet away. "Good evening..."

"About time! I thought you couldn't hear me or something!" Genma grumbled but Iruka saw the teasing glint in his eyes.

"Sorry, I was ordering take out." Iruka scratched the scar on his face as he scanned the faces at the table. He stuttered at Kakashi's masked one but quickly looked back at Genma.

"Finally got off mission desk duty?" Raido asked from next to Genma

Iruka nodded. "Yes, I was practically ordered to leave." Iruka tried for a bit of humor while taking a quick look over his back at the kitchen doors.

"Maa, what do you mean?" His voice said and Iruka felt his heart squeeze painfully. Iruka forced his face to show only a smile as he turned to look at the jounin.

"I've been covering for a few people after or before my own shifts and haven't really left except to go to the Academy for the past three days." Iruka's eyes flickered back to the kitchen doors, not noticing how quiet the table had gotten.

It was Aoba that broke the silence and bringing Iruka's attention back to the table. "You trying to die of exhaustion, Iruka?'

"Oh, don't worry about me." Iruka forced his smile to not seem so weary. "It was just because we were short staffed for a bit. Like I said, I was practically kicked out. I'm going to eat and pass out for a few hours after I get my order."

"Just a few hours?" Asuma asked as he studied Iruka closely, noticing the way he had slight bags under his eyes. "Seems like you need a bit more then that."

"It's fine." Iruka finally saw the hostess come out of the kitchen, two bags of food in hand. She stopped right in front of him and handed Iruka more food than he'd thought he'd ordered. The brunette couldn't help but blink down at her in surprise.

"Thank you, please come again." The woman bowed politely with a smile, before moving away.

Iruka stared after her before he shrugged slightly. The chuunin turned back to the table. "I'll see you guys in a few weeks, have a good night." And with that, Iruka gratefully made his way out of the restaurant, not noticing the question about why it would be a few weeks.

As soon as he went out of the doors, Iruka hurriedly made his way back to the hotel. He just wanted to eat -even though he didn't feel like it anymore- and go to bed. The day had been long and he just... wanted to relax.

If he could manage to.

OoOoOoOoOoOoOo

Iruka woke up with a grunt. His face and head felt like he'd fallen from a very tall building and slammed it onto the ground. Groggily, Iruka looked over to the left to check the time. He had an hour before meeting the client at the gates.

The chuunin stared up at the ceiling for a moment, before pushing himself up and making his way to the shower. Quickly, Iruka slipped into the warm spray and washed himself. Luckily, the liquid woke him up.

About twenty minutes later, Iruka got out of the bathroom feeling slightly better than dead. He reached down for his hiate-ate and tied it to his forehead. After a quick check of the room to make sure that everything was in his pack or pouch, Iruka left the room and dropped off the key at the reception desk.

He still had twenty minutes to get to the gate, so he decided to walk instead of run. Iruka didn't need to waste any energy just yet, that could wait for the journey.

As he strolled through the streets, he vaguely noticed that there was a lot of activity going on in this part of the village. More than there usually was from what he could recall. As he passed by a bakery that was open, Iruka paused and went in. He walked out with a stuffed bun. Quickly finishing it off, Iruka walked a bit faster. The gates came into view and the chuunin noticed that he wasn't the only one going out.

Now that he was actually paying attention, Iruka saw that most of the people were shinobi. After that, Iruka went back to thinking about what he was going to do when he came back from the mission. He really needed to talk to Kakashi... but with him avoiding Iruka whenever they could be alone... And now... Maybe he didn't need to talk. Now Iruka had his answers... Even if they weren't good ones, he still had them.

Iruka sighed, and stopped just a few feet away from the guard post. He didn't have to wait long because only a few moments later, the client came walking up to him with a slightly bigger pack than the one that Iruka had. "Yamada-san, goodmorning." The chuunin called with a slightly less forced smile then the one he'd plastered on his face the previous day.

"Morning, Iruka-san. Glad to see you're on time. The last time I got an escort, he was late." The man stated, eyes glancing around them. "Alright, we should get started." With that the man went to the gate guards. Iruka followed behind, his papers already out.

OoOoOoOoOoOo

The trip was relatively silent. Neither Iruka nor Kento spoke much except for a few words here and there. Iruka didn't really mind, he found that he wasn't in the mood for conversations.

Days passed quickly. Luckily, they always made it to some village near the end of the day so they didn't have to camp out in the forest just yet. Iruka knew that in the villages were getting farther and farther spaced so their luck wasn't going to last for much longer.

Just like he'd predicted, about two weeks into the last part of the journey, the sun was setting and they still had a day of travel left. Iruka could have carried the man, but Kento had rejected that.

"A little camping never hurts anyone." Kento said with a nod as he finished setting up his tent with relative ease. Iruka could tell that the man went camping a lot. "Did ya bring a tent?"

Iruka shook his head."I don't need one, since we'll be out in the woods, it's best that I stay up on watch."'

The man shook his head with a grunt. "Whatever you say. Night, Iruka-san."

"Good night, Yamada-san." Iruka went to place a few traps around the clearing. Once those were done, he settled down on a tree limb and kept his senses open. He wasn't sure, but he'd thought that he'd felt something flicker at the edge of his range.

Iruka cloaked his chakra signature as soon as he felt the flicker turn into a bit more then that a few hours past midnight. The signature or signatures (he wasn't too sure) was making its way straight for their camp. It had been relatively small at first but Iruka wasn't going let his guard down. Quietly, Iruka reached into his kunai pouch and took out a few kunai.

Three men burst into the clearing, two of the men falling to Iruka's traps. The last one faltered when he saw his comrades strung up in the trees. Iruka quickly knocked him out as well. There was silence once again, and Iruka shot up to the tree. He did a quick check of the area and found that there was nothing else.

He wanted to check a bit further out but didn't want to leave Kento alone. After a few moments, Iruka made his way to the bandits, checking their pockets. He found nothing and Iruka tied them up together. Once he was sure they wouldn't be able to wiggle out, he dragged them away from the clearing and tied them to a tree. Now they wouldn't be leaving at all and Iruka could watch them to see if anyone else would turn up.

Since he didn't find anything other than weapons, Iruka figured that they had somehow gotten wind of Kento's return and had gone scouting for the merchant. Hopefully, it was nothing more than bandits.

The chuunin stayed vigilant for the rest of the night but nothing came of it. As the first ray of light crested the horizon, Kenta got out of his tent and immediately started packing things away.

"Yamada-san, would you like to get there faster? Last night there was a group of bandits and there might be more hiding around the area." Iruka was confident enough to know that he could and would be able to take on bandits all by himself but he'd rather lessen the chance of attack by shortening the time it took them to travel to the village.

The man finished putting everything away and hoisted the pack onto his shoulder. "How fast can you get to the village with me on your back?"

Iruka studied the man for a second before replying. "I'd say in a couple of hours."

Kento thought about it for a moment, then nodded his head. "Alright. That seems like a good plan."

Iruka kneeled down and had the shorter man got onto his back. Once he was situated, Iruka took off. He made sure to stay in the trees. For one, they were good cover. Second, jumping from tree branch to tree branch was slightly faster the the terrain below. And less likelihood that there would be bandit traps up there.

Like Iruka predicted, they made it to the village in a little over two hours. Within visual distance of the gate, Iruka let the man off his back and both walked the rest of the way. As soon as they passed through, Kento was immediately greeted by a man who could have possibly been a family member.

"Glad you made it, Kento! Wasn't expecting you until later today. Any problems?" The man asked as he clapped Kento on the back. Iruka stood back and studied him. The man had piercing blue eyes that were a bit lighter than Naruto's. He looked to be a couple of years older then Iruka. He also had shoulder length brown hair and carried around a sword at his hip. By the way he walked, Iruka could tell that the man knew how to use it, and use it well. He briefly wondered if he was a Samurai or descended from a Samurai family. The way he stood, alluded to that possibility.

"None until this morning. A group of bandits attacked but Iruka-san here took care of them. I didn't even wake up!" Kento chuckled as he motioned Iruka forward. "Taka, this is Iruka. Iruka, this is my cousin, Taka Watanabe."

Iruka bowed his head politely. "Pleasure to meet you, Watanabe-san."

"Please, Taka is fine." The man chuckled with a small bow of own. "I feel old when people call me that. I'd like to thank you for bringing this old man home safe and sound. I always tell him to get a team to guard him but he never listens! Maybe next time he will."

"Old man my ass. I'm only three years older than you!" Kento snapped at Taka who just smirked, arms crossed. Kento huffed and turned back to Iruka. "I still need to sign that scroll, right? Are you going to stay the night?"

Iruka took out the mission scroll and thought about the question. It was still pretty early... he could head back and make it to the next village in no time. He still had five days left until he was expected back..

"You look like you could use a good long soak, and rest. Why don't you postpone your departure until tomorrow morning?" Taka said good naturally as Kento nodded next to him.

Iruka hesitated for a second, looking over his shoulder to the trees just behind the gate.

Really, what could it hurt? He'd be back within five days either way...

"Alright. I'll be on my way back tomorrow morning." Iruka smiled as he turned back to the two men. "Which hotel do you recommend?"

"Mine, of course." Taka chuckled and pointed to a green building closer to the center of the village. Iruka didn't notice the way his eyes studied him as he looked over to where the man pointed."It's got a great hot springs as well."

Iruka nodded, shooting the man a smile. "I'll head over. Do you have any recommendations for a good food place?"

OoOoOoOoOoOoOo

"Iruka! Where have you been!" Izumo cried as he spotted the chuunin making his way out of the trees.

Iruka walked to him at a steady pace. There was no need to run, besides he was exhausted. Even that small delay hadn't been enough to get him fully rested. "Morning, Izumo. Where's Kotetsu?"

"He's taking a break. Should be back in a few minutes. Anyway! Where'd you go?! Me and Kotetsu were worried about you! Until Lady Tsunade told us that you were mission." Izumo grinned. "How'd it go?"

Iruka couldn't help chuckling a little at the way his friend was looking at him. "It went well enough. A bit tiring." Iruka said as he signed in.

"I bet. Citizen traveling speed, I'm guessing?"

Iruka let out another chuckle. "Of course. I'd better go turn this in. I'll see you and Kotetsu later."

"Alright! Don't forget! Oh! Lady Tsunade wanted to see you as soon as you got in!"

Iruka waved to show that he heard, and made his way as quickly though the village as he could without running. He'd had enough of that for a while.

When he made it to the Hokage Tower, he waited patiently outside Tsunade's office while the secretary told the Hokage he was there.

"Iruka, glad to see you made it back so swiftly. How did it go? Do you wish to go on more missions? Do you prefer going on solo missions or would you be able to go on team missions as well?" Tsunade raised an eyebrow at him.

"I'd like to continue taking missions, Lady Tsunade. I'd like to formally offer my resignation as a sensei of the Academy."

Tsunade nodded. "While you were away, I've been reading up a bit on you. You used to do a lot of infiltration missions, correct?"

* * *

A/N: Thank you for reading!


	3. Chapter 3

Iruka grunted in pain as he felt something dig into his arm. Turning, Iruka flung the kunai that he'd been holding, and sent it straight into the face of the Sound shinobi that had ambushed him on the way out of the Land of Rice.

It was odd. He hadn't expected anything like an attack that far away from his mission. There was something...

That thought broke off as Iruka dodged a shuriken.

"What is a little Leaf shinobi like you doing all the way over here?" The Sound shinobi taunted, a wicked grin on his face as he flung a volley of kunai and shuriken at Iruka. Instead of answering, Iruka focused on evading them and working his way over to the Sound nin.

From the fact that the shinobi had been expecting him, Iruka figured that he wasn't alone. There was at least two more shinobi with him. If they weren't in the immediate area, then they were near by, probably waiting until he was tired and worn out. He had to think, and take out this one fast.

OoOoOoOoOoOo

"Whoa, Iruka! What happened to you?!" Izumo shouted in surprise as Iruka walked through the the Mission Room, to hand in his report.

At Izumo's yell, the rest of the occupants turned to look, and stared at the bloody bandage on Iruka's arm, and worn look on the chunnin's face.

Iruka grimaced, not liking the attention, but quickly hid it as he walked over to his long time friend. "It's nothing. A stray kunai, but I'm heading to the Hospital for a quick look at it after this." Iruka stated as he handed over the scroll.

"Well, that sucks! I thought it was just a low risk escort mission, though?" Izumo semi asked as he gave the scroll a quick once over. Not that he was expecting to find any errors in the report.

"It was. I just ran across a few bandits on my way back." Iruka said, looking non pulsed as his friend and fellow chuunin raised his eyebrow at the lack of information. Not that he pressed for more, Iruka hadn't been too talkative the past few weeks.

Instead, Izumo asked something else. "You're not doing another mission any time soon, right?"

Iruka tilted his head to the side, before shaking his head in the negative. "Not for a few days."

"Sweet! Want to hang out with the gang tomorrow then? We were planning a get together over by the new barbecue place. Asuma says that the food is the best."

For a second, Iruka hesitated. Ever since he'd started his secret infiltration missions, he'd had little time to actually see anyone. This last mission he'd been gone for a week but a few of his past ones had lasted slightly longer than that, though none had yet exceeded a month. He was expecting the next one to be slightly longer. Lady Tsunade had warned him that it would be imperative, and it wouldn't be an in and out within a week mission. He wouldn't be able to contact anyone for a while, so he should hang out with his friends. Slowly, Iruka nodded. "Sounds good to me. What time?"

"Awesome! I'll come by and pick you up! You're still living at Kakashi's, right?" Izumo asked, not noticing the flash of pain that had passed through Iruka's face before it disappeared without a trace.

"No, I moved out a while ago. I'll just meet you there." Iruka said, a smile on his face, though it was good enough that the other chuunin didn't notice how fake it actually was. Iruka hadn't even thought about getting a new place since he spent so little time in the village now a days. A few days here and there, and the rest he would be out on his missions. Since he really did have so little in actual possessions, Iruka took them with him. Those few precious things never left the sealing scroll or his body. After the first infiltration mission, Iruka had even gotten a seal tattooed on his arm. It held one sealing scroll and that one scroll held all those precious things that he had left. A few pictures of his parents and of Naruto and a couple of trinkets that he'd managed to find from the rubble of his old home. Also... one of the first things Kakashi had given him... A pendant with a dolphin on it. Iruka used to wear it all the time, only taking it off when he took a shower...

Now.. Now it was nothing more than a hurtful memory. It reminded him of the time before... before...when he was happy. When he was in love... and when Kakashi cared. It hurt remembering that time.

But he still kept it, he wasn't even sure why anymore.

"Be there by three, everyone should be free by then." Izumo waved as Iruka agreed and walked out of the office.

Iruka headed to the hospital for a quick check up, then made his way back to the hotel that he had started using. The owner always gave him discounts now. It was unnecessary, but Iruka appreciated the gesture.

"Iruka-sensei!" The happy cry made Iruka smile as he turned to look at Naruto. The smile faltered a little when he caught a glimpse of who was with the blond who he thought of as a son. "Iruka-sensei! Where have you been? I keep looking for you, and you're always off on a mission! We haven't eaten ramen together in forever!"

Iruka made sure that his eyes didn't stray up to the jounin, the smile growing again the more that Naruto complained about the lack of contact from Iruka. Sakura smiled slightly, and Sai gave a nod of his head. Kakashi just raised his hand, though Iruka pretended not to see that as he gazed into Naruto's blue eyes. "I'm sorry, Naruto. I've been taking a few missions out of the village and haven't been around very much. I'll be here for a week before I have to go again."

"Really? That's awesome! How about we go eat ramen now?!" Naruto grinned, hopping from foot to foot. Even though he was a teenager, Naruto still acted so childishly when he was excited.

Iruka wavered, eyes flickering up to Kakashi. "Aren't you on a mission? Or team training?"

Noticeably, Naruto dropped, a pout forming on his lips.

"How about this, I have something to do tomorrow, but how about later tonight I'll meet you at Ichiraku's?"

Immediately, Naruto perked up, nodding his head excitedly. "Yeah! Ramen!"

Iruka chuckled. "I'll see you then." Iruka waved goodbye, and walked away. He felt bad about cutting the meeting short, but he didn't want to stay in Kakashi's presence any longer. His mask had to stay firmly in place and being so close to his ex with no sign that they ever were anything to each other...

Even after all these months, it still hurt.

Kakashi had been Iruka's most serious relationship, of course it hurt. Iruka had thought that Kakashi...

He threw that thought out of his head. It was no use thinking like that. There was no use, and no point in thinking about the past.

OoOoOoOoOoOo

"Iruka! Good to see you! You haven't been around recently, we've been worried about you!" Teuchi yelled, grinning at the chuunin.

Iruka smiled, taking an empty seat right at the middle of the stand. "I would have come more often, but I've been taking mission outside the village. I no longer teach at the Academy. How are you? Is Ayame still working with you?"

"I figured, Naruto's been complaining about you not being able to buy him his ramen. I've been doing pretty well, business is good. Ayame still works here but she's out on a date tonight." Teuchi chuckled as he handed a customer his ramen.

"Ah, first date?" Iruka grinned at the man who nodded.

"Iruka-sensei!"

"There he is." Teuchi chuckled as the hyperactive blond tumbled on to the seat next to Iruka's. "Hi, old man!"

Teuchi sputtered at the greeting, but Naruto just grinned at him before turning back to Iruka, and his bright smile fell.

"Iruka-sensei, are you alright?" Naruto asked, hesitantly, eyes searching Iruka's face.

Iruka smiled, trying to will away the tired feeling he'd never really been able to get rid of. There was no reason to make Naruto worry. "I'm fine, just a little tired. How's your training been going?"

With that one question, the floodgates were opened. The blond chattered, stopping only to give his ramen order, before turning back to his explanation of his training with Jiraiya.

"What kind of mission are you going to next, Iruka-sensei?"

Iruka startled a little, having zoned out a bit. "Just a bodyguard mission for some merchant. I'll probably be gone for a month or so." Iruka said. Though he really was going to be gone for a month or more, it wasn't a bodyguard mission. It was another infiltration mission. He would have to sneak into a camp that was showing signs that greatly disturbed Lady Tsunade. The intelligence on it was rather lacking, and that was why Iruka was going in. The Leaf needed more info, and fast. Rumors were that they were going to attack, but those were rumors. Lady Tsunade needed proof that something was happening before she could send off a squad or three. Iruka was the best at gathering information undetected. If he had to, Iruka would pretend to want to join to get into the camp. He also had to see whether the camp had any missing-nin or if they were all just bandits.

If they were missing-nin... His task would become slightly more difficult.

Taking anyone else with him was out of the question. There would be more suspicion, and they could be uncovered faster is there was more than one shinobi going into the camp.

No, Iruka was going alone. Though, he hoped that the information wouldn't take a month to get. The longer he stayed, the more chances of discovery.

OoOoOoOoOoOoOo

"There's something wrong with Iruka." Asuma stated as the group of jounin watched the chuunin make his way over to the table, Izumo and Kotetsu just a few steps behind him.

"You see it too?" Raido said, studying the worn face of Iruka.

Asuma nodded. "Kakashi hasn't been acting the same either. He used to always talk to Iruka, now he barely acknowledges him. Don't they live together? Kakashi was helping Iruka out, by letting him rent a room for less than an apartment... Wasn't he?"

"They used to. I've noticed Iruka head towards that hotel just down the street from here when he gets back from one of his missions. He goes there instead of Kakashi's place. They might of had differences of opinion and Iruka moved out?" Genma said, frowning. He whipped the expression as soon as Iruka sat down at their table.

"Hello." Iruka greeted everyone with a small smile though most noticed that it was slightly strained, before relaxing after he'd gotten a glimpse of everyone.

"Iruka! We haven't seen much of you! What have you been up to?" Genma grinned.

Iruka shrugged lightly, looking around the table. He seemed pretty surprised at the amount of people that had shown up. "Just a few escort missions. Pretty boring stuff."

"Except for that last one, huh, Iruka?" Izumo said, jabbing his elbow at Iruka. "Stray kunai, wasn't it?"

Iruka just shrugged again, and smiled.

"Yo."

To those who were watching, Iruka's reaction took them slightly by surprise. His smile faltered, and his eyes seemed to show a lot of pain. It was just for a second, but to them, it was extremely noticeable.

People greeted the new addition, who happened to be Kakashi. Iruka didn't look at the masked shinobi, though he did greet him along with the rest of the group at the table.

Asume found himself glancing from Iruka, to Kakashi again.

There was something there. Something that they had all missed and he was going to get it out of one of them.

Preferably Kakashi since it was more likely his fault for whatever had happened between the two.

* * *

A/N:Thank you for reading! Hopefully, next chapter will be out a bit sooner!


	4. Chapter 4

During the course of the get together, a few notice a few things. Whenever Iruka looked at Kakashi, a flash of hurt passed through his eyes before the chuunin looked away again. Every time that that happened, a few wondered how they'd never noticed that before. How that could have possibly slipped by unnoticed for who knew how long.

As soon as Iruka left, stating that he had had a long day and needed to get some rest, the jounin of the group turned to Kakashi.

The two chuunin that were left after Iruka had departed, also turned to Kakashi, though they were a little lost as to why.

The man looked around, seemingly surprised about the attention directed towards him.

"Kakashi." Asuma started, catching the other's attention immediately. "Why has Iruka been avoiding you? And why have you been avoiding him?"

"Maa, I don't know what you're talking about..." Kakashi hedged, clearing his throat.

"Bullshit!" Genma called, earning a few looks from the other customers. "Stop lying and just tell us!"

Kakashi looked at the group around him, before sinking into his seat slightly, knowing that he wasn't going to get out of the current situation.

OoOoOoOoOoOo

"You wanted to see me, Lady Tsunade?" Iruka pushed the door closed behind him, and walked over to stand a few feet from the desk.

He'd just barely been leaving the barbecue restaurant when a hawk had flown down to him with a message to head straight to the Hokage Tower asap. That only happened during emergencies, never before had Iruka had one of those.

In a way, Iruka was thankful for the distraction. Being in Kakashi's company, being so close to him... It brought back memories, but it also brought pain. Pain that he didn't need.

It had been months, shouldn't have he gotten over it already? Apparently he wasn't so lucky.

The blond Hokage looked worried, and Iruka suddenly had the feeling that he would be leaving sooner than expected.

OoOoOoOoOoOoOo

The woods were brightly lit, and the hidden shinobi could see dozens of what looked like bandits roaming the forest. The camp had been difficult to find, had taken longer than Iruka had wanted. The little bit of information that they'd managed to gather had been wrong. Every single bit of it. That alone lead Iruka to believe that these men and women were more than just regular bandits. They were the one's that Iruka had been sent to get information on.

A snap of a twig somewhere in the distance, and Iruka packed his chakra a little more tightly, making it smaller. Carefully, he peered over, eyes flickering from one area to the other.

Whoever it was, headed away from Iruka's immediate area. Once the danger of discovery lessoned, Iruka made his way carefully to the edge of the camp, making sure to keep his chakra hidden. If he was right, some of the bandits weren't just that.

For the moment, the level of activity over the whole place was sparse. From what Iruka could sense, there was chakra signatures closer to the middle of the camp than the edges of it. Those at the edge were spread out, and into the forest as well.

Iruka frowned, he needed to get into the center of the camp. That was where the information he needed was kept. Lady Tsunade had said that they'd been getting reports of a a small number of missing-nin planning an attack. What they weren't sure about was who they would be attacking.

Konoha couldn't risk sending more than one person. Iruka was one of the few shinobi that was excellent at infiltration. That he could completely cloak his chakra signature helped immensely. He could always make it smaller, or make it disappear completely in areas where there wasn't supposed to be any chakra signatures. That was harder then pretending to be a small animal or a civilian, so Iruka didn't do that as much.

Iruka remembered the day that his jounin sensei had noticed his skills. He'd been at the training grounds with his team, they'd been tasked with locating, and capturing their sensei as a test to assess how far they'd come from their first day as genin.

His team mates, Kotetsu and Izumo had stated that they would be a distraction once they found the sensei. Iruka had been tasked with trapping their sensei when he was occupied with the other two.

Iruka had apparently surprised his sensei, and that was when Iruka had gotten extra training in Infiltration and Sabotage.

He'd done well those first few years, but then Iruka had gotten a taste for teaching. Iruka found that he enjoyed it. He loved training each new set of students ways to protect and fight for those they loved. For their precious people. For Konoha.

Sometimes, the children weren't meant for the life of a shinobi, and Iruka showed them that and lead them to a different path. One that would fit better with who they were and wanted to be.

Iruka pulled himself out of his throats as an alarm sounded somewhere on the other side of the compound. That was his cue, he hadn't even noticed how much time had passed already. Henging into one of the scouts, Iruka dropped down from the tree tops as soon as most of the bandit left towards the disturbance.

Carefully, Iruka made his way through the tents. He needed to find information and he needed to find it fast.

If he didn't, Iruka would need to pretend to want to join up. Getting information that way would take longer. It the rumors were correct, Iruka didn't have much time at all.

* * *

A/N: Sorry it's so short! I had writer's block and I thought writing a short chapter would help jump start my mind. Next chapter should be longer and will be the last one. Thank you for the reviews: Alublad and Lala Em! Sorry its so short and took a while!


	5. Chapter 5

Note: Remember, character death story.

Chapter 5:

-:Kakashi being grilled by the group:-

Kakashi slumped down in his seat a little as he finally gave into the pressure of his friend's glares - and in all honesty, Kakashi was feeling a tad bit guilty.

Okay, more than a tad. A lot more.

"Iruka and I were dating for a while..." Kakashi trailed off as gasps of shock rang throughout the group. Obviously, that was not something they were expecting, and Kakashi cringed at what he was about to say next. "He moved in with me and we were good for a long time..."

"But..?" That was from Genma. He looked like he was ready to jump up at Kakashi and pummel him, or stab him with his senbon that he had clenched between his teeth.

Kakashi cleared his throat before answering. He wasn't proud of what he was about to say, but he was going to do it. Seeing Iruka... and seeing how hurt he still was, even though the man tried to hide it... Kakashi had messed up big time. "I... I freaked and started pushing Iruka away… I stopped talking to him, I avoided him as much as possible when he was home..." With that, Kakashi trailed off.

"You're an asshole." A quiet voice said. It was Kotetsu. "Iruka was practically working himself to death, and you're the reason why?"

Kakashi nodded, wincing a little as everyone glared at him. "I... I know that I shouldn't have done that, but he was getting too close..."

For a second, no one said anything after that. Then Asuma sighed, shaking his head. Having known Kakashi the longest, he knew that Kakashi had commitment issues. As soon as he started feeling that someone was getting too close, the man would do everything within his power to chase them away. No matter how much he liked the person, Kakashi inevitably drove them away. Though, this time the other person being a man was a bit of a surprise. "So you got scared. Kakashi... how many times have I told you?"

"I know, Asuma. I.. I lasted longer with Iruka. I really thought... but I just... One day, I came home and he had been in the kitchen. When he looked up at me... I just..." Kakashi stopped, not being able to say the words he wanted. "I panicked. He smiled at me, looked at me... he had this look in his eye and I just couldn't take it. I brushed him off."

"You are an asshole." Izumo spoke up, pushing his chair away. Kotetsu followed his lead. "Did you also tell Iruka not to say anything about your relationship to anyone?"

At Kakashi's slight flinch, Izumo snorted in disgust. Both Izumo and Kotetsu left the restaurant without looking back.

Genma too stood up. "Kakashi... I'm your friend, but I'm also Iruka's friend. Right now, I want kick your ass, but I don't want to hurt you. So I'll see you later."

The rest left as well, until only Azuma was the only one besides Kakashi.

"I really messed up."

Azuma lit a cigarette, took a drag, and let it out slowly. He watched the smoke drift up, before looking back down at Kakashi. "You never talked to Iruka."

Even though it wasn't really a question, Kakashi nodded. "We avoided each other after Iruka noticed that I was... After a while, he moved out of my place. He didn't even tell me he was leaving. He just didn't show up one day. A few of his things are still there, but I don't think he was planning on stopping by to get them. They're mostly clothes and a few things I gave him."

There was a silence after that, and Asuma didn't break it. He was waiting for Kakashi to come clean. Completely.

"I had someone over the last time he stepped into the house. It wasn't anything inappropriate or anything like that, but… I knew that if Iruka heard anything, that that would be what he'd assume…."

There was silence, a silence that Asuma didn't break. He stared at Kakashi, waiting for him to continue.

"I regret it." Kakashi said finally, head tilting down. "The other day I was with Naruto and we spotted Iruka. He wouldn't even look at me. I hurt him."

"Of course you did. Kakashi... You're a genius, but sometimes..." Asuma trailed off with a shake of his head. "Come on, I'll walk you home. You're gonna be the target of many pranks for a while. Especially if Naruto hears about this."

OoOoOoOoOoOo

Iruka purposely walked through the camp, making sure that his face was set in a scowl so that if anyone saw him, they would leave him alone, thinking that he had something to do that couldn't be delayed. Not that there was a lot of people around.

Iruka's distractions, though time consuming, had been placed strategically to lead the guards away from where he was sure the information he needed was located. The explosions had worked pretty well. The area he was in was mostly deserted, with only a few stragglers every now and then. But those few were easily sent running with just a look at Iruka's face. His disguise was obviously efficient, but not wanting to push it, Iruka made his way quickly to the tent that was usually under intense guard.

During Iruka's initial reconnaissance, he'd gone through the camp, mapping everything in his mind. He'd studied the guards routines, the rotations, the types of weapons and anything else that would have been able to help him. The Captain's tent had been one of the first places that Iruka had looked for, hoping to find the information quickly and get out without being noticed. Iruka had been disappointed with that fast retrieval hope. When he had found it, the tent was heavily guarded and Iruka hadn't been able to get close to it at all. Suspicion was high, and that led Iruka to believe that something big was being planned. Iruka had left, and taken a day to formulate a strategy.

He'd even sent the hawk with a copy of his plan but Iruka hadn't been expecting to hear anything back from the Hokage. She'd given him leave to come up with his own strategies since he'd had a high success rate during the year he'd going back into Infiltration and Information Gathering.

The confirmation that they needed was extremely crucial, but at the same time, Iruka couldn't leave any evidence behind incase they were wrong. Kohona could not be associated with this mission.

With that in mind, Iruka had planted and set a few timed traps and explosions as far away as he could from where the Captain's tent was located so that area would become less guarded. The explosions would be small at first, then they would escalate to keep the attention away from his destination. Sure, the tent wouldn't be left completely undefended, but it would even the odds enough for Iruka to be able to get in.

He hoped.

When Iruka got to his destination, he froze a bit in surprise. It looked completely deserted. He couldn't see anything. Eyes narrowing with suspicion, Iruka brought his hands up and formed a few handsigns. A second after he was done, Iruka sent out his senses in small waves that would pick up anything in the area. Even if the person was cloaking their chakra, Iruka would be able to detect it. It was a risk, but Iruka couldn't afford to leave without the information. He took out his senbon that were coated with a sleeping toxin that would work within seconds. He couldn't afford to kill anyone yet. At least, not unless their information could be confirmed.

He found three chakra signatures that were significant enough to be a threat. Iruka quickly and quietly made his way to the first one. Once he was sure that he wouldn't miss, Iruka threw one of his senbon, hitting the man in the neck. The next one headed to the presence hidden just a bit farther, and the last senbon went to his right.

Three thumps were heard as the bodies hit the floor. They wouldn't be getting up anytime soon.

Quickly, Iruka darted into the tent and immediately headed for the table in the middle of it, hid henge fading away as his concentration went to searching for the information.

Papers were scattered everywhere as he looked through drawers and table tops. Nothing that had to do with what he was looking for caught his eye. Iruka glanced around and saw that there was a desk almost hidden against the tent walls. Iruka went to it and immediately found what he was searching for.

Attack plans, and records of some missing-nin and a few villages that wouldn't mind allying themselves with whomever the leader was.

As Iruka skimmed through them, his eyes narrowed.

He'd found what he was looking for - and more. This was the confirmation that the Hokage needed.

Suddenly, Iruka turned away as he felt of of his tags burst, sending chakra to alert him that someone was heading back towards his direction.

"Damn it." Iruka hissed, turning back to grab the papers. Hopefully, they wouldn't notice that they were gone any time soon. He whistled, as he left the tent, a hawk immediately flew down to him. Iruka placed the papers on a sealing scroll when he heard yelling.

"Ichigo and Misako are down! We've got to spread out!"

"Shit!" Iruka cussed softly, before tearing his leaf headband off and placing it on top of the plans. He quickly sealed everything into the sealing scroll and tied it to the hawks leg. But before Iruka let the hawk fly, he threw a kunai with a explosive tag attached to his right, as far from his location as possible.

The resulting explosion had the guards heading towards it, and with that distraction, Iruka sent the hawk up into the air. It disappeared quickly high into the sky.

"Shit, check the Captain's tent!"

Iruka moved swiftly, trying to get as much distance between himself and the enemy as he could without attracting any attention. He had to get out of the camp, and fast. He'd sent his headband just as a precaution but he really would rather avoid getting captured.

Iruka dashed in between the tents, making sure to send out his senses every now and then so that he could avoid any enemies that could be in his path. While running, he threw out a few tags that were connected to each other and would only explode when he triggered the closest one with his chakra. They blended into whatever they stuck onto, they wouldn't be obvious that way. It would be his last ditch effort to get away.

Suddenly, Iruka sensed three small objects flying towards him from the side. He jumped back, letting the kunai slam into the ground where he'd just been, and took out two kunai of his own. An enemy darted through the tents, and jumped towards Iruka with kunai in each hand. Iruka jumped back again, avoiding the slash from one and blocked the other with a clash. He slipped around the man, and sent a little bit of chakra to the bottom of his foot, sticking one of the kunai that was on the ground to his sole. Quickly, Iruka dashed away and spun, kicking his foot out. He stopped the chakra going to his sole, and let the kunai fly. It hit the man straight in the chest with a loud thud. Iruka didn't stick around, but he was sure that there was no way that he would survive.

He quickened his movements, dashing between tents once more. Iruka was almost to the trees, and he didn't sense anyone close by. He just had to get past the last row of tents and he would be able to disappear, maybe with a few pursuers but they would be easier to lose the farther he went from the camp.

There was just a few feet left when Iruka sensed something below him. But it was too late to do anything about it. At that moment, the ground underneath him opened up. Someone took a hold of his leg with one hand and stabbed him with a kunai with the other. A grunt of pain escaped, but before he could do anything to get out of the shinobi's grasp, his vision wavered, his body grew weak, and then his world turned black.

OoOoOoOoOoOo

Tsunade looked up grimly as the shinobi and kunoichi she had sent messenger birds to, filed into her office. Once they were all there, Tsunade spoke. "An hour ago, we received confirmation about an enemy invasion. Luckily, we have enough time to send a few squads to interfere while we also secure and prepare the village for attack. Asuma, Kakashi, Shikamaru, Gai, and Genma- you will each be leading a squad to the enemy base camp. Iruka is there, you will need to reconvene with him, if you are able. If not, you will attack the camp and take out the commanders."

"What do you mean 'If you are able'? And I thought Iruka was just going on escort missions..."

Tsunade shut her eyes, forehead furrowed slightly. There was a few seconds of silence before she opened her eyes again and answered. "Iruka has been infiltrating a few areas. This time I sent him into a camp just outside our borders, in Sound. There have been rumors that it was a war camp but nothing more than rumors. We needed to know if they were really were planning anything, and we couldn't just attack them without proof of hostility. Since they're not in our border, the only thing we could do was infiltrate, and get information. Iruka left two and a half weeks ago, earlier then he was supposed to but we got wind of some concerns so I sent him. Since he's gotten there, Iruka has been sending me constant updates every day with informations about what he's found and the layout of the camp. Today he was planning on going into the camp. If he was successful, Iruka would have sent the information, along with a report of what he was planning to do next with one of the messenger hawks. He sent the messenger hawk, but Iruka wrote no report... His headband was there as well. We now have proof that Konoha and a few other villages are their target, and we need to neutralize the threat. My guess is that he was compromised and had to make sure we got the information."

"Why would he send his headband...?"

Tsunade looked up, her eyes showing her frustration and sorrow. "He didn't want them to know what village he was from. I told him the information was vital, but Kohona could not afford to be caught implicated with anything. He's giving us time to set up plans."

There was a grim silence throughout the room, every single one of them felt dread at the thought of Iruka being compromised.

"You will be leaving immediately."

"Hai, Hokage-sama."

OoOoOoOoOoOo

Iruka came to slowly. Everything felt heavy, and he couldn't move a thing, not even his fingers. His vision seemed to be weaving slightly. Every time he tried to focus, it felt like the room was spinning and in the end, Iruka had to close his eyes to keep the nausea at bay. Throwing up was not something he wanted to do when he couldn't move his body properly.

"It looks like you're finally up, my lovely leaf shinobi. Caused us quite a bit of chaos, you know..."

Iruka's eyes snapped open in surprise at the sound of the voice. Not because he wasn't alone, but because he recognized it from somewhere. And the fact that he knew that Iruka was from Konoha was unsettling.

When he could finally see without the world spinning, Iruka's eyes flickered over to the man and saw why he was identified so easily. The word that left his mouth was slightly slurred, but still recognizable. "Taka...?"

"I see that you recognize me, Iruka." Taka smirked, eyes sparkling. "Surprised? I'm sure you weren't expecting me. I definitely wasn't expecting you. A pity, really. I was hoping for some unknown. I'll hate killing you. But, it's no matter. Konoha will get it's message, written in your lovely blood."

Iruka couldn't help but glare at the man. Or, he tried to. His face wasn't cooperating with him. In fact, his entire body felt like there was a ton of rocks lying on top of it. He managed to speak, but again, the words were hard to get out. "S-so you are planning on a-attacking Konoha." He didn't want to give the man the impression that he'd already found the plans, not that Iruka had been able to read much about what they were planning, other than the fact that it was against Konoha..

Taka smirked at Iruka, eyes full of amusement. "I'm planning more than that, my dear Iruka. Much more. You have horrible timing, just a few hours later and it would have been too late to stop anything…. No matter, you won't be able to move for a few hours either way. It will amount to the same thing. Now, I'll be back for you later. It seems that we will be going ahead of schedule. Since they sent you, Kohona obviously has heard about some rumors... but we stopped you before you could get our plans into your Hokage's hands. Hmmm, such a dilemma."

For a second, the man just stood there, watching Iruka, eyebrow quirked a little. Then he walked over to Iruka and reached out towards him with one hand. Iruka flinched away. Or tried to. His body still wasn't even twitching. That was disheartening but Iruka wasn't going to just give up. He would do everything possible to get out of this mess. Normally, he had a high tolerance of poisons and they got out of his system faster than normal. Though, he wasn't sure how long he'd been out, the fact that he couldn't move a thing yet was more than slightly disconcerting.

Taka smirked, like he knew what Iruka was thinking. His hand finally brushed against Iruka's face and he then ran his thumb gently over Iruka's jaw before gripping it tightly between both of his hands. Then he lowered his face until he was kissing Iruka's lips.

If Iruka could have pulled away, or even swung a first, he would have.

Since he couldn't, and Taka knew it well, the man pressed more firmly into the kiss. He even slipped his tongue into Iruka's mouth, almost teasingly, as if he was daring Iruka to bite it. It lasted for the longest time, and then Taka pulled away.

"If I didn't have to kill you…" The man sighed, trailing his fingers along Iruka's jaw, then down his neck, chest, stomach, before gripping his hip slightly. His hold tightened, making Iruka gasp in pain. Taka abruptly stopped, and stepped away from a slightly shell shocked Iruka. His eyes trailed down Iruka's form once more before turning.

Iruka watched as the man left, leaving him completely alone, though Iruka was sure that he was surrounded by guards. He shook the uneasiness as best he could, before focusing on escaping.

He would have to escape somehow, and if he couldn't... he'd have to trigger the rest of the bombs or possibly set a few more before triggering them. He could take out a majority or at least a good chunk of the camp if he could do that now that he'd sent the camps plans to Lady Tsunade. He doubted that he'd get the whole camp, but he could at least cut the numbers by quite a bit.

So, to start with, Iruka tried moving his fingers and toes a bit. The first few minutes, nothing twitched, not even a little bit. Then, after a few more moments of trying, his finger twitched slightly.

It wasn't much, but it was something. It meant that whatever they used on him was making its way out of his system. If he managed to avoid being dosed again, then he had a chance of escaping and detonating his tags.

If he couldn't leave, he was definitely going to die. If he escaped…. There was still a chance(big chance) that he would end up dead… but there was a slight chance from that, that he would be able to escape. Small though it might be, it was still a chance.

Crappy though his life had had been for the last year, there was still plenty there that he wanted to live for. Kakashi wasn't within his sphere any longer, but Naruto, and all Iruka's friends were still worth not giving up. So he would do everything possible, to make it out of the camp alive.

Hours later, or at least that's what it felt like, Iruka was finally able to move. Hesitantly, Iruka got up and looked around the room. It was bare, with the only thing in it was the thin blanket on the ground where he'd been placed. There was nothing he could find that he could use, but he wasn't necessarily surprised by that. After a quick check to confirm that yes, he'd been stripped of all his weapons and tags, Iruka rolled up his right sleeve, exposing a tattoo that he'd gotten on his forearm just after he'd started going on regular infiltration missions. He coated his fingertip with his chakra and slowly traised the outer line of the tattoo.

He unlocked it, and chakra flowed out and rushed through his body, almost like he was recharging himself. It wasn't much, he never could store a lot, but it was enough to do what he had to.

Iruka then passed his hand over his left forearm and unsealed his bag of explosive tags from the tattoo on that one. Never before had be stored anything other than his storage scroll full of his personal and treasured things in that, but he'd added the tags and a few senbon just in case this time because he'd had a feeling that he would need them.

Iruka was glad he had, and that they hadn't noticed anything odd about his two tattoos. After a few seconds, Iruka closed his eyes, took a breath, and sent out his senses in waves. What he found was more than a bit unsettling, but nothing that he hadn't thought would happen.

Surrounding him, there was a group of four chakra signatures. One was constantly moving, while the other three were stationary. He sent his senses a bit further, and found one of his planted explosive tags. It was just out of his reach. Iruka opened his eyes and quickly placed a few of the tags around the room.

He rolled his sleeves down and just to be on the safe side, Iruka sent out his senses one more time and was glad that he did. He immediately hid his tags in his pants pocket (sliding the senbon up his sleeve) and dropped onto the blankets. One of the guards walked in and over to Iruka, face set in a scowl. "They want you, get up." He kicked Iruka's side hard, making Iruka grunt at the force.

The man snickered, and reached down, hauling Iruka up to his feet roughly. Then he dragged him out the door, back towards the direction of Iruka's planted explosive tags.

Iruka pretended to struggle to stay on his feet, and discreetly struck another tag just underneath the tent that he'd stumbled next to. The guard gripped his arm and dragged him upright again. Iruka cast a discreet glance backwards and noticed that the other three guards were following, but from the looks of it, none of them thought that he was a threat. That was Iruka's one advantage. It also helped that he had replenished some of his chakra. Iruka would drop a few more tags before making a run for it again. He wouldn't be able to go far, but maybe he would get far enough that the blast would send him away, instead of killing him.

Again, Iruka stumbled, sticking another tag on the side of the crate he'd fallen against.

After a few more tumbles, Iruka struck. The senbon that he'd hidden up his sleeve, slammed into the guard's neck with one flick of his wrist. The guard instantly fell to the floor, dead. The other two immediately rushed him, one yelling out to alert the area around them.

Iruka took off, ignoring the pain in his ankle where he'd been stabbed with the kunai. He quickly threw a regular exploding tag at their feet. He didn't have to look back to know that his aim had been spot on. With little else but to run, he did just that. The chuunin did fling the rest of his tags, making sure that they would all be close enough to the other to set them off.

Sounds from his captors reached his ears, and Iruka couldn't help but grimace as the last time he'd been running from them, he hadn't made it out. He shook it off, running, and throwing tags wherever he could. Suddenly, a body slammed into him, making him crash through a tent.

Pain flared through his body as something pierced through his shoulder, pinning him to the ground. A harsh gasp of pain escaped his lips, though he managed to hold back the scream. Then, whatever had gone through his shoulder _twisted_ and Iruka couldn't hold back the scream. Pain tripled from before, and his vision wavered dangerously. He was about to pass out when whoever had a hold of the kunai, stopped twisting it. He was still in pain, but he no longer felt like he was about to fall into darkness.

"Oh dear… My little prisoner still had a trick up his sleeve, I see." Taka's voice drifted through the roaring in Iruka's head.

Iruka blinked, trying to focus on the man that had him pinned down. Taka had a smirk on his face. He leaned in close to Iruka's ear and whispered. "But it was all for not. Konoha will fall, and there's nothing you can do about it."

"They'll stop you. Whatever you're planning, it won't work." Iruka managed to say through gritted teeth.

"Ah, but that's where you're wrong… those plans you found… they weren't everything…"

Iruka's eyes widened frantically as the implications of those words. That he knew that Iruka had seen them. That he'd likely sent them off.

 _Was it a trap?_

Taka smirked, eyes boring into Iruka's.

It was a trap!

Panic rushed through Iruka at the thought of leading Konoha Shinobi, his friends, into a trap. He couldn't let that happen. He couldn't!

Taka's smirk grew bigger as he watched the panic go through Iruka's eyes. "Like I said, it's really too bad that you were the one they sent. I really would have prefered some unknown. But, it was fun, seeing the look on your face… Especially now… I wasn't going to tell you but I rather enjoy that look. The utter helplessness, and the fact that you lead them to their deaths. "

Iruka's gritted his teeth, then smiled. That smile made Taka frown, and Iruka brought up his hand, with a paper bomb held between his forefinger and middle finger.

Taka jerked, but not soon enough.

"I'm sorry Naruto…" Iruka whispered as he activated the bomb. Within seconds, it would trigger the rest of them, creating a mass explosion.

The paper ignited and pain rushed through his body, and then everything turned white.

OoOoOoOoOoOo

Kakashi, along with the rest of the squads on their way to the enemy camp were thrown off their feet as something exploded in the direction from the enemy camp.

Everyone jumped to their feet again, eyes wide in shock, before they all headed for the explosion sight.

"Kami..." Asuma said softly, eyes looking at the destruction in front of them. Burning tents, bloody body parts, soot, fires, smoking trees... Nothing moved, nothing breathed.

"Iruka..." Kakashi whispered, body trembling in shock.

The first one to make a move was Naruto, who headed straight for the area that looked the worst off. When using these type of explosives, the area that was tapped with chakra had the worst damage and that was where Iruka would have been, unless he'd used a timed explosion, which Kakashi had doubted because of the amount of damage throughout the whole camp.

The rest followed, though they checked the tents that were still somehow standing on their way there.

Nothing was found.

Iruka was gone.

A/N: Sorry for the wait!

To be honest, I've been having a lot of problems focusing lately. I finished most of this before my troubles, but still had to add a bit. It's not as long as I had planned but with the way I've been feeling, it's the best its gonna be. I do still want to rewrite it but that's a long shot that might not happen especially if I keep feeling this way. I can't even read others fanfiction without feeling foggy and just not there. Hope this passes soon though and get back into writing. Again, sorry for the long wait and I hope you guys are well.

Thank you for reading! And thank you for the reviews Alublad, Lala Em, Emy and Leki!


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